Table 2 Prevalence of respiratory symptoms in 1557 farmers who responded early, and in 346 farmers who returned a questionnaire after the telephone reminder or answered a few questions by telephone (late‐response group).
| Early response | Late response | Late response* | Late response† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily cough up phlegm | 8.6 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.4 |
| Woken due to shortness of breath | 2.1 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 2.4 |
| Wheezing | 11.5 | 11.1 | 11.8 | 10.0 |
| Episode of asthma last year | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.6 |
| Use of drugs for asthma | 3.2 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.5 |
| Asthma (ECRHS) | 4.6 | 5.9 | 6.2 | 4.4 |
| Any allergy | 24.0 | 25.8 | 25.4 | 25.1 |
| Hay fever | 7.6 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 7.5 |
ECRHS, European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
p>0.1 for all symptoms; χ2 test.
Values are expressed in percentage.
*Weighted for proportion of organic farmers in early‐response group.
†Weighted for proportion of livestock farmers in early‐response group.